Greek-American makes the largest investment in Greece in a quarter of a century

[Angelo]

Greek-American makes the largest investment in Greece in a quarter of a century

Cal West Investment Corporation and Renew Energy are to be awarded the bid to convert two sugar factories in Larissa and Xanthi, Greece, to Biofuel Ethanol. Total Investment for the two plants will be about $200 million Euros (apx. 300 million dollars) in what constitutes the largest U.S. Investment in Greece in the last 25 years.



According to James Kakridas, President of Cal West Investment Corp. that spearheaded the process for the past 24 months, “the two plants will process about 200,000 MT of corn that presently is used to feed livestock and will produce about 60 million gallons ethanol, food grade corn oil, food grade co2, and still provide animal food at an even lower price. The ethanol will be blended with the gasoline as an oxygenated additive that will reduce carbon monoxide to the environment.”

Renew Energy owns and operates two state-of-the-art plants in Wisconsin, producing over 200 million gallons per year. They apply the most advanced technology in Fractionation, a process by which a kernel of corn is split in 3 parts: the middle part is used for ethanol, the outside part for food grade corn oil and the bottom part for germ. Out of nine final approved bidders, some of the biggest corporations in Europe and Greece, two were left, Hellenic Petroleum Corporation (Vardinogiannis Group) and Renew Energy to which finally the project was awarded.

“The U.S. consortium won on the high technology issue,” said Kakridas. “It will be in a partnership with EBZ (Sugar Industry Corp. which operates three other sugar plants in Greece), with the U.S. consortium holding 65% and the management and EBZ holding 35%. ATE BANK (Agriculture Bank of Greece) is holding 85% of the shares of EBZ.

Renew Energy operates its own gas stations in Wisconsin that also sell E-85 (85% ethanol 15% gasoline) and which is approximately $1.00 cheaper that regular gas. It will introduce E-85 in Greece, (it costs less than regular gasoline) by first make it available to trucks and busses, as more manufacturers in Europe are producing this type of vehicles that use regular gas and E-85. A small electronic device is added so that the engine can detect if the fuel is gas or E-85 and change the mixture.

According to James Kakridas who emigrated from Greece and holds development projects in California, “this is a win-win project for Greece. The two plants will employ about 150 to 200 people per unit. On 24/7 basis operation they will support the local economy, they will provide price support for farmers, plus thousands more jobs throughout the economy in sales, marketing and transporting of the byproducts, less dependence on imported oil, cleaner environment. Greece will not have to import about 3,000,000 barrels of oil, saving more than $ 400,000,000.00 a year.”



With the EU mandate on blending Ethanol with gas throughout Europe, opportunity exists for expanding to more European Countries. Technology is under development in the U.S. that will produce biofuels from other biomasses.

Regarding the notion that biofuels are increasing the cost of food, James Kakridas thinks the opposite is true. “The cost of food is increasing because of the cost of oil. In the U.S. corn production last year was over 12 billion bushels and just two billion were used for ethanol. Besides, if ethanol has caused price increases in the U.S., why have food prices doubled in Europe, where ethanol in its infancy?”

It could also partly compensate for outsourcing US jobs to China and India, due to high costs here, in the US. “Look what the high price for oil has done: shutting down companies, eliminating hundreds of thousands of jobs, threatening to destroy the American economy and the rest of the world and bring pain and suffering to the American people. At least ethanol is creating jobs and relieves the pain at the gas pump. Talk to the people in the Midwest. E-85 (85% ethanol 15% gasoline) that is used by hundreds of thousands of cars, it�s selling about $1.00 less per gallon.”

According to Mr. Kakridas, “instead of bashing ethanol we should support it so that we can save billions of dollars in importing oil and put that money back into the American economy. It�s also a form of clean energy. Nothing is polluting this earth more that fossil fuels. And although it can�t replace them completely, it can make a difference for sure


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[Prokomenos]

Wow most of us wont even see a million Euros in our life time!

[Ellinas]

It has to be the largest investment by a Greek American, not the largest investment in Greece. 200 million euros sound a very few. MIG (Vgenopoulos' company) invested 15 billion euros in 2007 by buying Vivartia.

[Napalm]

I like that group of investors from the US that's building that Mountain size head of Alexander the Great much like that Mount Rushmore in the Dakotas.

[Apollyon]

Originally Posted by Angelo
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Greek-American makes the largest investment in Greece in a quarter of a century

Cal West Investment Corporation and Renew Energy are to be awarded the bid to convert two sugar factories in Larissa and Xanthi, Greece, to Biofuel Ethanol. Total Investment for the two plants will be about $200 million Euros (apx. 300 million dollars) in what constitutes the largest U.S. Investment in Greece in the last 25 years.



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Den xreiastike na diabaso parapano apo tis 4 protes seires.....
Mprabo greek-americans..... pali *alakia kanate. Re , min eisaste toso blakes. Ta biokausima einai ola mia apati. Tha rixnoume trofi mesa stin mixani gia na bgazei fuel? Kai meta otan tha peinasoume ,ti tha kanoume? Tha trome o enas ton allon? Alli *alakia einai auti pou oi agrotes kalliergoun sta xorafia tous proionta gia biokausima. Den me noiazei i energeia.Den me noiazei an den exo reuma gia to PC. An to refrigarator einai adeio, tin patisame.
Mpravo gia alli mia fora. Paizete to paixnidi tou NWO

[gorgona]

Originally Posted by Apollyon
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Den xreiastike na diabaso parapano apo tis 4 protes seires.....
Mprabo greek-americans..... pali *alakia kanate. Re , min eisaste toso blakes. Ta biokausima einai ola mia apati. Tha rixnoume trofi mesa stin mixani gia na bgazei fuel? Kai meta otan tha peinasoume ,ti tha kanoume? Tha trome o enas ton allon? Alli *alakia einai auti pou oi agrotes kalliergoun sta xorafia tous proionta gia biokausima. Den me noiazei i energeia.Den me noiazei an den exo reuma gia to PC. An to refrigarator einai adeio, tin patisame.
Mpravo gia alli mia fora. Paizete to paixnidi tou NWO

I have to agree with you. It is very inefficient to grow corn for ethanol. Sugar cane is by far a better source. Although I don’t know if cane can be grown in as many places as corn can. But I think it is mistake to use arable land to grow fuel because it most certainly will take away from food production. This has already begun because farmers are making more money on corn crops used for ethanol.

We need to take a moment and think of the consequences before we dive right in. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” There are other ways to produce ethanol, such as from algae. I even heard of research and development of bacteria that feed on carbon dioxide and produce ethanol. This may be a pipe dream, but corn-to-fuel is not the answer.

[really]

I wonder how much of the corn will remain for animal feed (it said 1/3) and whether Greece would have to import it after. Strange that they would invest in such a venture in a country with so little arable land. We would not want Greece to be dependent on food from foreign countries.

The reason that jobs are outsourced from the US because of rising oil prices does not seem correct to me, it is labour prices, and that has happened before the oil prices went up.

[Apollyon]

Originally Posted by really
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I wonder how much of the corn will remain for animal feed (it said 1/3) and whether Greece would have to import it after. Strange that they would invest in such a venture in a country with so little arable land. We would not want Greece to be dependent on food from foreign countries.

The reason that jobs are outsourced from the US because of rising oil prices does not seem correct to me, it is labour prices, and that has happened before the oil prices went up.

Unfortunately ,oh my friend Really, Hellas depends on food from other countries. This is a major problem and someone leaded us to that ,full of traps, path . The scenery is set.

[really]

Yes, that is sad, Apollyon, my friend. I remember reading a long time ago about how the Japanese, even though the Japanese rice was very expensive to grow, would still grow it in Japan so as to lessen their dependence on rice imports.